


It Was Just A Slip Of Tongue

by mary_kayle



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, One Shot, adrien knows, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 23:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7126954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mary_kayle/pseuds/mary_kayle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien knows Marinette is Ladybug. Honestly, it was not so hard to find out. However, he is determined to keep his knowledge and his feelings to himself. That's it, until he starts to slip up. One shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It Was Just A Slip Of Tongue

**Author's Note:**

> Cute little one shot. Got ideas from different sources, hope you'll like it;)

Adrien knew Marinette was Ladybug. It wasn't some kind of sudden revelation, just somewhere along their partnership the pieces slowly came together with slight hints only he could see.

The first serious clue was the history book she dropped once the day of Pharaoh's attack. Alya had it filmed on Ladyblog, and since their school was the only one using these books, it became obvious that his lady was attending his school. Somehow she managed to trick Alya into believing the book wasn't the deal of great importance, but Adrien wasn't easy to throw off the trails.

What confirmed his knowledge was the Evillustrator attack, when she showed up incredibly quickly for someone who was NOT in the building.

During the Horrificator incident he noticed that Ladybug knew all his classmates' names. Moreover, their class was the only one in school that day due to their participation in filming contest, and including the fact that akumatized Myléne blocked all the exits, Adrien gained the firm knowledge about Ladybug: she was in his class.

He knew her appearance couldn't change much, and the next day after defeating Horrificator Adrien put two and two together, discovering that the civilian identity of Ladybug was none the other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng. 

He was so happy she wasn't someone like Chloé. The boy found himself drawn to her for some reason he couldn't even explain himself. He got to know the girl better and several months later found himself completely and utterly in love with her - even more when she was only Ladybug for him.

Adrien never told Marinette he knew her most hidden secret. As far as he could judge, she seemed completely oblivious to Chat Noir, her partner, and Adrien, one of her best friends, being the same.

Little did he know he was also oblivious to the important, world-meaning fact. 

Adrien never figured that Marinette had an enormous-sized crush on him. No, screw this. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was completely head over heels in love with Adrien Agreste. And the boy yet remained completely blind to this fact.

Alya and Nino couldn't help but groan at their besties' inability to see their feelings being mutual. Countless times they tried to push Adrien and Marinette together, but something always went wrong. Mostly, it was just Marinette understanding their intentions from the first minute and refusing to flow with the plan, scared of Adrien's rejection. The only pro of Adrien and Marinette's closeness was stopped stuttering from the girl.

Adrien, however, was determined to keep his knowledge and his feelings to himself in order not to ruin the friendship they had.

That's it, until he started to slip up.

 

\----------

 

First time it happened, there were four of them - he, Marinette, Alya and Nino packing their belongings to go for a lunch. The biology was pretty tough for Adrien, and he won't stop complaining.

"Ugh, I probably failed the latest test miserably. Seriously, who cares how does the plant's cell work? It's stuff for scientists, I'd prefer very much to study something really useful. It's impossibly dull to memorize!"

Although Adrien was homeschooled pretty good, a year in the public school has certainly rubbed off on him, and due to different teachers he developed certain preferences and dislikes to school subjects. Biology and chemistry taught by Ms. Mendeleiv were at the bottom of his list of favorite ones.

"If you want," interjected Marinette, "I can try to help you through your biology test. The whole thing in memorizing something is the way you try to remember that. I have several things that help me on my own, so if you want to, I can also help you." She smiled suggestively at the boy. 

"Thanks, Marinette, you're the best! Are you sure you're okay with that? You probably have more important things to do..."

"No- I mean... I'm perfectly okay with it! You can come up to my place today and we'll study together. It's probably better to study at mine since your father doesn't appreciate any guests and I always have fresh baked snacks at my place. Umm... Only if it works for you."

Adrien practically jumped from the excitement. Basically a study date with his lady!

"Yes! God, I love you!"

It took all four of them exactly three seconds to realize what the boy has just said.

Alya and Nino tried to hide their large victorious grins in the sleeves of their jackets, while both Adrien and Marinette blushed heavily.

"Umm... That's not... I didn't mean it... Well I umm... No!.. Not like this... Ugh!" Adrien turned into a stuttering mess and hit his head on the door repeatedly.

"Chill, dude," Nino saved the model's head from another hit. Marinette still stood in the place dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.

"O-kay," snapped Alya, casting a look in Marinette's direction, "let's just drop it for now."

Marinette eyed her thankfully (how was she even supposed to deal with this kind of situation?) before replying.

"Come on, Adrien, let's just have some lunch already. We don't exactly have much time left."

Surviving through an awkward moment, both teens were extremely grateful the matter was dropped.

And even though later Marinette spend hours in her room, guessing whether it was truth or really a bad slip of the tongue, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know. She wasn't prepared for rejection. Especially now, when they were finally becoming close friends with Adrien. She wouldn't trade it for the world.

 

\----------

 

Second time something like this happened, Adrien and Marinette were alone in the library, working on a paired project in history. They had practically everything done, except from one difficult place they neither could agree on, nor find in the books. 

Marinette went down the library, searching for anything that could help their case. The whole project took them approximately three hours, but this question they tried to figure for almost an hour and a half already.

With all her Ladybug's luck, she was the one who found the required book. Marinette rushed happily to their working spot, waving the book in her hand.

"Found it! Finally! Look, it has all the information we needed and even more!" She was bouncing from the excitement. Her happy mood immediately transferred to Adrien.

"About time!" He exclaimed happily, gently squeezing her by shoulders and giving a kiss on the cheek. "I started to feel over exhausted about this waste of nerves."

It was frozen Marinette in his arms who helped him realize the situation he created. Adrien quickly put his arms back by his sides.

"Sorry!" he squeaked. "I guess I just got caught in the moment and was very excited?"

Marinette looked at him strangely, but said nothing.

Neither of them could stop fangirling (or fanboying) later on the kiss to their their kwamis. But still those two stubborn idiots decided to leave it all to themselves. 'In order not to ruin anything we already have,' both thought with goofy grins on their faces.

 

\----------

 

Third time was a little less affectionate, but it still counted, right?

The four of them decided to throw a sleepover at Alya's while Adrien's dad was out of town with Natalie, so there was no one to watch the boy.

They watched movies, played video games, then decided to play truth or dare.

"Alya, truth or dare?" asked Nino.

"Truth," nodded the journalist.

"If you chased Ladybug and Chat Noir and were very close to discovering their identities, but it meant you would get injured, would you stop or continue chasing?"

"Continue chasing, without doubt! It's the deal of my life to unmask them!" Alya exclaimed as if it was obvious.

"Alya!" gasped Adrien and Marinette in sync. "You know that your safety is top priority to them, like any other's as well, right?" asked Marinette. 

"Chill out, girl, I hope the reveal wouldn't come up with such a price anyway. Besides, we have Ladybug's cure that fixes everything!" 

Marinette pursed her lips, but said nothing. It was no use to argue with Alya on that subject.

"Marinette, truth or dare?" asked Alya.

"Dare." Alya got that wicked grin on her face when she was planning something.

"I dare you to give a bone-crushing hug to Adrien."

Marinette felt her blush rising up to her cheeks, but she couldn't miss such a perfect opportunity. So she hugged the boy with all her strength. Adrien returned the hug with practically the equal force, though more gentle in order not to break her anything accidentally. He buried his face in the crook of her neck.

However, when Marinette started pulling back, he held her tighter and mumbled something in protest against her skin, which sounded dangerously like 'no, mine'. 

Two moments later the boy seemed to come back to his senses, releasing the hug. Marinette was looking at him with much confusion and suspicion in her eyes, and Adrien hoped she once again would drop the matter. She did, indeed.

Neither of them said anything about it, continuing the game with the flaw. Adrien couldn't help but wonder how much more slip ups would it take for Marinette to pop up the matter or start taking them seriously.

 

\----------

 

His next slip up was a dangerous line to their identities.

They were on a class trip to the Louvre, walking around and observing the art creations. Louvre was a big museum, so there was no chance for them to cover it all in one day. However, Ms. Bustier decided to make the biggest of what they could cover and announced that the excursion was from early morning till late evening.

By the end of the day clearly everyone was exhausted. When the class finally went out of the Louvre, pupils collectively collapsed to the grass nearby without any second thought.

"I'm dyiiiing," whined Alya, leaning on Nino's shoulder. Eyes closed, they let themselves to relax together in sitting position.

Marinette preferred to lay down on her back since there was no other shoulder to lean on. The already night sky was too beautiful, especially after so tiring day, and the girl couldn't help but stare at the stars absentmindedly.

Adrien collapsed down dangerously close to her, facing the ground. His position reminded Marinette of one Chat Noir's 'cats always land on their feet' after failed attempt of landing properly. She smiled to herself, but quickly shook the thought off her head. No need to compare the supermodel and the superhero.

Marinette turned her head in Adrien's direction. 

"Come on, move on your back. Either you will miss an opportunity to stargaze." She teased, and Adrien turned his head to her. "The sky is beautiful tonight," she continued, smiling.

"Not as beautiful as you, m'lady," replied the boy, too tired to think straight.

This only sentence was enough to wash off all the tiredness from Marinette. 

"What?!" she exclaimed with wide eyes, trying to convince herself it was just another stupid slip of tongue.

Adrien's pupils widened as he processed his own words.

"Sorry! I'm too tired to watch out for my words, I guess," he mumbled. "I was just watching awfully a lot of Chat Noir and Ladybug's videos from the Ladyblog yesterday and some their phrases got stuck into my mind." 

He tried to sound nonchalantly. Please buy the excuse, please buy the excuse, please buy...

"O-kaay." Marinette didn't sound very convinced, but Adrien was glad she didn't push it further.

Later Marinette would seek for similarities, but deny it eventually under the reasoning that those two boys had very different personalities. Moreover, there were awfully a lot of boys in Paris, so what are the chances of Chat Noir being the one she already knew?

 

\----------

 

Another slip of the tongue was ten times more serious, and this time Adrien knew he wouldn't find a reasonable explanation.

Marinette invited him to the bakery on the day off to show him some baking tips. Last time when Adrien tried her cookies, he showered her with compliments about her baking abilities and sighed, saying he wished he knew how to cook such delicious treats. The girl giggled and proposed to teach him how to bake those ones.

Adrien couldn't refuse.

So now they were in the bakery, trying to recreate those heavenly tasting cookies.

"Here," said Marinette, "the receipt you need. As you see, we first need to set the oven. It must have the required temperature by the moment we are ready with the dough." She turned it on, setting the 180 degrees, before continuing. "And now to the receipt. So, we need sugar, flour, butter, eggs, nuts, raisins and cinnamon. Be careful with the measurements or else you spoil the cookies."

After several failed attempts Adrien finally managed to get exactly what was required and smiled at the girl proudly. 

"Cool," she smiled. "Now we need to form the cookies' shape, then put them on a baking paper, next in the oven and we're done!"

Adrien and Marinette spent next ten minutes, creating whatever shapes and figures they could think of. Finally the girl put the cookies in the oven and closed it, setting the timer.

"Et voila!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands and jumping up in the air with the delightful smile on her face before facing him, smile never leaving her expression. Adrien watched her with a goofy smile on his own face.

"Marry me." 

The words left his mouth without him even realizing it. Both teens froze in shock.

"What?"

There was no way out of it. He was officially dead now.

"SorryIdon'tknowwhatcameovermepleaseforgetIeversaidanything!" the boy blurted out in one breath.

Marinette smirked and took several steps in his direction until they were inches apart from each other.

"You know," she said, "one more slip up and I'll start to think that you actually mean it..."

Adrien swallowed hard under her gaze. She was so dangerously close... He wasn't sure though if he could compose himself to prevent these fails in future. So it was now or never.

"Actually," he mirrored her words, "I mean it, my lady." To hell with the identities, either. He must have told her at one point anyway. Nothing to loose now.

Marinette's eyes grew exponentially wide before realization hit her like a ton of bricks and she narrowed her gaze on Adrien.

"You." The girl accusatively poked him in the chest, trying not to freak out and be confident. "You, kitty, knew all the time since I-don't-know-when and yet said nothing?"

The boy put on his best Chat grin and slightly cocked his head to the side.

"Forgive me?"

Marinette snorted at him. Then another realization hit her, and her confidence left her all sudden.

"W-what do you mean, 'I mean it'?" she asked him timidly and somewhat frightened.

Adrien didn't know how to reply. So he closed the gap between them and kissed Marinette. He didn't know whether she liked him or not, but figured there was nothing to loose already. In fact, 'nothing to loose' statement helped him with this decision.

Really, he was surprised when she started kissing him back. The boy responded with more passion, deepening the kiss, trying to remember every single detail of her and of their kiss. It might be their last, who knew. Maybe she simply didn't want to hurt his feelings.

She pressed herself to him even further. They continued to lessen any left space between each other, until breaking apart for much needed air. Adrien was the first to break the silence.

"I... mean it. Really. Every... single... time," he responded to her earlier question, still trying to catch his breath. Deep inhale. "I love you, Marinette, my lady, in every identity you take. And even if you don't feel the same, I have all time in the world to wait for you to reciprocate my feelings. I will do anything in my power to win over you." The boy looked at her determinately and hopefully. 

"You don't need to, kitty," she giggled. "I already love you. Though in my opinion we're still too young to get married and have three kids and a hamster..."

Marinette bit her lip. Now she was the one with stupid slip ups? And since when it became so easy to confess to him in passing-by manner like it was nothing?

Adrien raised an eyebrow at her. 

"Three kids and a cat, maybe?"

She blinked at him. 

"O-kay?" Whatwhatwhat, what is happening, I can't handle it anymore, her mind screamed. She pulled herself together to gather the last conscious corners of her brain.

He was silent. So she continued.

"But you seriously need to work on those slips. Don't want to accidentally expose our identities, do we?"

Adrien grinned and nodded. 

"By the way, we really need to talk about all this stuff and sort everything out properly."

...Their cookies were burnt till no eating condition. However, it wasn't such a great loss, even if Adrien thought of it as a tragedy of the century.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! My previous work was kinda weak, however this one is better (or at least I hope so). Leave your reviews, any are appreciated;)


End file.
